“Be Careful To Do Everything

I Have Said To You”

“For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

“Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed.

“Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.

Exodus 23:10-13

The Lord instituted a time of Sabbath – a time for the rest and renewal – for His people in the ancient Near East because He wanted them to thrive. As we see in Exodus, He tells them to sow their fields for six years and rest of the seventh. So too with working six days and resting on the seventh, His way of life set apart the Israelites from other nations, for not only they but also the foreigners and slaves in their households were allowed to follow this pattern.

In our faith and service, rest is as important as work.

Our Daily Bread - July 8, 2017